I found myself on this site last night and it inspired me. There aint any space in these houses for hoarding much of anything, i could see that straight away. haha. Take a look at the houses listed under 'tiny' (65-140 square feet). heehee. Wouldnt that be an adventure of counter-cultural living! egad! I had Josh help me measure out some of the 'larger' small homes yesterday (i especially like the Whidbey at 557 sq ft or the Sebastarosa at 807 ).

Josh is out on a trip to Fianarantsoa. He wished me happy anniversary this morning at 4am... i'm hoping that he did that because he didnt want to forget to wish me happy anniversary tomorrow when it's actually our anniversary. :-S It's our 8th on the 8th! Wowie! As i read on a great devotional blog, recommended by a lovely friend, 'the days are long, but the years are short'. It is more true the older i get, which is what everyone over 30 says i guess. Last night while we were walking briskly home from an impromptu Sunday afternoon visit at friends and the night snuck up on us before we were all the way home i was marveling at how big our first born is already, and how quickly they both will grow up no matter where we find ourselves living (or in what size of house... although i reckon a 'tiny' house may make the boys seem bigger than they really would be. ha) - and how long I've already been married to that guy i used to play nerf gun wars with in the basement of my parents house when we were in high-school. yikes.

Judah is off to a birthday party this afternoon at his 'french friend' 's house. I wrapped the gift this morning (a head-light for the often times we have power cuts these days) and thought it needed something. I was reminded of this tutorial where i learned how to make a gift bow from paper. Clever, huh.

It's been a bit 'chilly' today (i use that term lightly during the month of February when usually Northerners are 'enjoying' sub-minus30C temps... although not now, so i heard!) with very gusty weather, which induced a cuppa of my favourite Cornelia Bean tea, brewed in my Brewt with some litchi honey. Yum. I love that Brewt, i tell you. It's so clever.

We've got a litchi theme going on here at our house. I finally opened the litchi soap i bought at Ivahona at Le Gare a few weeks ago. So yummy!

This is a photo i took of Asher having his morning nap. i snuck in and opened the curtain a crack to let in the light so i could take a photo, and then the camera light (not flash) shone in his face while i took it so i made a hasty exit before he woke up entirely. Hence the blurry picture. Taking a photo while he was sleeping may not have been terribly clever. He slept another hour and a half, so it was ok. I took this photo for my mom, so she could see the love between boy and bear/dog.

We've got some kind of water leakage problem in our truck. Because of the heavy rains recently and the fact that there is a mysterious hole somewhere in the truck there is water sloshing about under the floor mats on the driver side of the truck. For this reason we often leave the doors open during the day to dry it out, which suits Asher just fine since the truck is one of his favourite play places.

a big and excited thanks to auntie lisa and family for the fun package (wow, it was HUGE!) and all the goodies therein!! Judah was pretty impressed first with the size of the package and then with the thumb-print art book. He's saving the lego for putting together when Josh gets home. He was also quite jealous of Asher's Lightning McQueen cars! Good thing they're brothers and can share. Pretty stoked myself about the teas and we're all impatiently waiting for Josh to get home to see what he got!

This is a photo of my domestic prowess. i need to document it for posterity. That there is the pumpkin spice icecream that tastes like pumpkin pie with whip cream on it but in icecream form, peanut butter icecream, and fresh vanilla bean icecream which goes with the baked-that-afternoon apple pie. whew!

Today we went downtown to the post office to collect a package (woot, woot!!) that was sent to us November 3, 2010. I think it was sent to arrive in time for Judah's birthday at the beginning of December... 3 months en route... that's not so bad. I've heard of many parcels that have taken a much longer 'vacation' before they arrived at their intended destination.

Anyway, so somehow my name was the one they picked off the package address, even though i now see that Josh's name is first and in one place the only name written! But, since 'they' picked my name out (i reckon they thought it was the man's name, since Jocelyn without an 'e' at the end is a french male name) i was the one who had to pick up the package in person... so i was told anyway. The entire time we were at the post office, or whatever one might call that place i went to pick it up, no one once asked me for identification.

We actually went by there last Friday to pick it up, only to be told that - as the lady pointed out on the paper i had in hand - the office closed at 11:30am until 1:30pm for lunch break, and i was there at 11:35. <sigh> gotta love french siestas in the middle of the working day.

We arrived at 8:05 and i was already with a bad attitude, i confess. I thought, "if they arent there by now, even though 'the paper' says that the office is open at 8, i'm going to kindly point it out to them as they did to me last week!" There was a guy there though. The first guy. He took my paper and proceeded to open up all his scribblers cluttering his desk. I'm not kidding when i say his desk looked like a not-much-more-grown-up version of elementary school desks with his piles of lined scribblers and filing folders to keep them in. Everything in that office is on paper, and there is lots of it! He transcribed my information into about 2 or 3 separate ones - by hand in neat blue ink on graph lined paper in a blue scribbler, a brown one and probably a red one too - then he printed off a new paper for me on one of those computer printers that uses rotary holes along the side, like the one i used to use to print off college essays in the 90s. Then i was pointed to two other offices, both being empty. We waited.

While we were waiting (it was by then 8:20 - that first part went tickity-boo, but too good to be true i suppose) Asher and Josh played around in the main garage like area... until the ladies from upstairs couldnt resist him anymore and whisked him upstairs to bounce him on their knees and take photos of him with their phone cameras. I said to Josh that if we were in Canada just now i would feel a bit uncomfortable with that kind of thing, but here, meh. I just love how they love my kids so much in this country, and i mean that in a totally honest and delightful way, not a creepy North American way.

So then i paid about 2$ at the cashier - that was the next office i had to wait for and attend to in line... and then we waited for another half and hour before "the man with the key" arrived and he, after unlocking his office and the gate to where the packages were kept proceeded to make his way around the office to greet everyone, shaking their hands good morning. Us North Americans who have a difficult time with Southern time management customs were thinking just then that if he wanted to come an hour late to work perhaps he could attend to us first and then go around greeting everyone. gah! But anyway, once everyone was greeted he returned to his office and stamped my paper. That was it. We were free to leave with our package after an hour of diddling around waiting for people to show up. If they had all been there at the office when 'the paper' said they would be i reckon it would have taken 10 minutes maximum to get everything sorted. But alas. This culture is out to teach us the virtue of patience, and for some it's working. (haha).

For a while now it's become apparent that MAF's work is changing, at least in Madagascar it is. There are fewer missionaries from abroad, especially from the western countries. And what foreign (western) missionaries there are mostly (not all, mind you) live in the larger cities and therefore have access to public transportation as opposed to years ago when more missionaries lived in the bush, isolated from a lot of things (schools, hospitals, RnR, etc). To be sure, this doesnt mean there arent missionaries here in Madagascar - but their work is changing also and MAF as an organization must change with them.

There are more aid organizations working in the country though (although not nearly as many as one would see in more 'popular' countries like Kenya and Sudan despite similar needs... ahem, but i digress). One of my personal concerns (which i wasnt shy to share when the CEO of the MAF Europe/Africa Region, Chris, came to our house for dinner) was that it is NOT our (ie. Josh and mine) intent to live here on financial support (given towards our ministry with MAF) and only fly for big NGOs who could just as well fly to their destinations with the non-MAF aviation companies. Especially if their mandate is merely handing out water buckets and food-aid. Sorry. I come from an evangelical background, i cant help the fact that i think that kind of aid is lopsided. I also believe that many of the people who support our ministry with MAF financially think the same way (or? tell me if i'm wrong please!) and i feel that they should expect that Josh and i (ok, mostly Josh because he's in the thick of things) should be responsible to ensure that we're here to do what we say we're doing: bringing wholistic transformation - spiritual and physical, rather than just one or the other. Physical aid might be great in the short term, but it aint the Good news.

This past week we had the CEO of MAF Europe (with headquarters in England) come to visit and share the renewed vision of MAF with us. It was exciting to hear from him that he had a similar vision to what Josh and the MAFers here in Tana have been batting about in the hangar amongst themselves: that we need to better serve our Partners, especially the smaller partners who havent the money and resources of larger NGOs but are still doing a great work amongst the isolated areas of this great island. Josh has been saying for a while already that what our program needs right now is not "our" other plane back from the Congo, but rather a smaller plane that doesnt cost as much for our smaller Partners to use. The Caravan is a greatly efficient aircraft: it can take a lot of stuff and a lot of people to remote and short airstrips, but it's very big and takes a lot of money to run. It's just not as 'efficient' for people who, say, want to send 1-3 people to a destination. Of course, our Madagascar Mission Runs (MMRs) have done fantastically in addressing this problem to an extent, offering seat rates to designated areas within the country thereby making it more affordable for the average Jandre Rakotbe instead of requiring everyone to charter the entire aircraft. Our Operations office (aka Josh and the Ops guy Haja) also sends messages to Partners we know have projects in areas where a bigger Partner is flying and has some extra seats, thereby making the cost affordable to the smaller partner and a cheaper rate to the larger. It's what is called Yield Management. But a smaller aircraft! When Josh heard from Chris that there might be a possibility of getting one for our program he emailed around to some of our Partners and asked if they would make use of such a resource. Within the same day he received huge support and enthusiasm for the idea, one Partner going so far as to say, "if we would have access to such an aircraft we would have already booked it on a regular basis!" (that's a lot, for those who might not know). So, all that to say, this new idea may bring some changes and Josh, for one, is pretty stoked about it. It has definitely put more enthusiasm into his work, as a renewed vision tends to do.

He also talked about being a 'more active donkey'. Haha. Have you ever heard MAF called the "Good Samaritan's Donkey"? apparently it's an often used illustration of what MAF is in place to do: to be the 'donkey' that Partners use (acting as the Good Samaritan) to bring spiritual and physical aid to those in need in isolated areas. Chris is saying that we need to become more active in the projects than just a means of transportation. Apparently he uses Madagascar as an example for other MAF bases in this case because MAF-Mad is very active with the Madagascar Medical Safaris (MMS): organizing the doctors and the medicines and the camp arrangements so that they can do the work. We also have a lot of expertise and professionalism in many technical areas, perhaps we could offer training of some sort to others. We need to search out amongst our Partners how we can better become involved in their projects... or create more projects of our own and encourage partnerships in it with our Partners.

One thing i've never even considered (which is indicative of my own myopic view on missions, evidently) is that as missionaries are increasingly coming out of Africa and Asia, are we (MAF) going to those places to see how we can better serve them and if they can also support the work of MAF through prayer and through financial means. Are those churches hearing of 'the donkey' who can partner with them to bring spiritual and physical aid to those they are coming to Madagascar to reach?

There was more to this little pep-talk, but these are the things i latched on to and identified with the most. It's exciting stuff, to be sure, and i think we were at the point in our tenure with MAF-Mada where we were in need of a renewed vision. That's often the case when you've been somewhere for a while, isnt it? Anyway, all that to say, MAF is continuing to serve with integrity and intention here in Madagascar and we're looking forward to realizing new and innovative ways of sharing the love of Jesus through aviation (and being a more active donkey) to those isolated people of Madagascar, bringing spiritual and physical transformation.

Two blogs in one day, does that tide you over for a weeks worth of no blogging? haha. Perhaps you were thinking we had expired due to, and long before, our long-life UHT milk.

Currently we are hosting 'the guys' over for supper and the evening. They are having a guitar-hero battle just now while the icecream(s) are thawing enough that we can get a sharp edged machete in to carve a bit out and the freshly baked apple pie is patiently waiting for us all to get it together. I have become quite the (better) pie maker since i developed the skill of making pie crusts (and boy are they good!) from a packet - just add water. You know those are being restocked when we're back in C! (arent you proud of me for using a packet of pie crust mix for no special reason instead of hoarding it for Thanksgiving 2011? ) Anyway, the apples are not really great for eating, these ones i bought from that ubiquitous fruit man who seems to be everywhere at once (at school, at church, on the road up from Jovena... all on foot - he must be in fantastic shape!). Asher likes to eat them, but then again he also likes chewing on pre-chewed/spit sun flower seeds. ugh.

WE've just enjoyed a sumptuous BBQ'd chicken thigh dinner with mesquite rub. DEE-lish! (8 largish thighs for 10$, how does that compare to Canadian prices, can you tell me?) potato wedges and green beans from my garden that i put in the freezer without doing whatever one is supposed to do before putting them in the freezer so Josh declared them almost unfit for company... (insert dejected droop of shoulders. who knew?!) Now for the selection of: pumpkin spice icecream (oh my goodness, it tasted just like either a very creamy pumpkin pie or some sort of pumpkin cream cheese cake filling!), vanilla bean icecream made with Madagascar vanilla beans , or peanut butter icecream. The chocolate fudgesicle icecream was polished off this afternoon (finally a warm one after weeks of incessant rains) by Judah and his buddy. Woot! can you tell we're enjoying our new icecream machine?

gotta go serve the pie.